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Chicago Fights Back: New Tools to Combat the City’s Changing Climate
Chicago deploys new sensor technology to combat the impacts of climate change and help neighborhoods adapt to a changing urban environment.
Last Updated on July 1, 2024 by Daily News Staff
Chicago is no stranger to the impacts of climate change, with extreme weather, flooding, and heat waves becoming increasingly common in the city. To combat these effects, a team of 17 organizations, led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, has deployed a set of scientific instruments on the rooftop of Bernard J. Brommel Hall at Northeastern Illinois University. The installation marks the first step towards the implementation of the Urban Integrated Field Laboratory, a five-year, $25-million project called Community Research on Climate and Urban Science (CROCUS).
CROCUS aims to help neighborhoods understand and adapt to Chicago’s changing climate by gathering data from nearly 20 sensor arrays across the city. The researchers have installed a Waggle node, which is a grouping of sensors that measure wind, temperature, rainfall, snow accumulation, radiation, and air pollution. The equipment is also capable of edge computing, which means that data can be processed at the source of collection and accessed in near-real time by researchers.
The CROCUS project is a collaboration with minority-serving institutions (MSIs) and historically Black colleges and universities. The partnership with Northeastern, which is an MSI and a designated Hispanic-serving institution, will help researchers recruit and train the next generation of climate and environmental scientists. The project seeks to address the underrepresentation of people of color in these fields.
Cristina Negri, director of Argonne’s Environmental Science division and the lead investigator on the CROCUS project, said that the research they conduct and the relationships they build will help Chicago’s neighborhoods plan for a more sustainable and resilient future. With the implementation of the Urban Integrated Field Laboratory, Chicago may be better equipped to combat the effects of climate change and protect its residents from extreme weather events.
Read the press release here: https://www.newswise.com/doescience/new-tools-to-combat-chicago-s-changing-climate/?article_id=791937&sc=sphn
https://stmdailynews.com/category/science/
